President Donald Trump arrived in Japan on Saturday eager for a visit salted with flattery and pomp — particularly as he escapes a hostile political environment back home.
The President and first lady Melania Trump landed in Tokyo ahead of a largely ceremonial visit to recognize the country’s new emperor. Later they attended a dinner with Japanese business leaders meant to promote investment in the United States — fueled along, Trump hopes, by a new trade agreement that reduces the $68 billion trade deficit with Japan.
“Japan has had a substantial edge for many, many years but that’s OK,” Trump said during short remarks. “We’ll get it a little bit more fair.”
Earlier, Air Force One touched down at Haneda International Airport just before 4 a.m. ET (5 p.m. local) after a roughly 14-hour journey from Washington. Trump’s series of engagements with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Emperor Naruhito begin Sunday.
The state visit will provide an altogether more pleasant vibe than in Washington, where talk of impeachment is now rampant and Trump is seething at Democrats’ investigations into his administration.
And though Japanese officials and analysts said the honor of an inaugural state visit would have been afforded any US leader, it still reflects a bid to charm a flattery-prone President who still finds himself besieged by investigations back home. The trip kicks off an intensive schedule of foreign travel that will take Trump to Europe and then back to Asia over the next month.
In the Japanese capital, ringside seats at a sumo wrestling tournament, an imperial dinner banquet and a visit to a naval base are being arranged by Abe, who has spent more than two years making a crack at becoming Trump’s best global friend.
On that front, he’s largely succeeded. As other traditional allies in Europe and Canada find themselves politically weakened and successively insulted by Trump, Abe has met and spoken by phone with the President more than 40 times and has been twice invited to the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Trade and North Korea on the agenda
The payoff for Abe’s courtship is less clear. Trump, whose views of Japan as an economic rival date to the 1980s, has slapped metal tariffs on the country’s exports and threatened duties on its autos. And his diplomatic effort with North Korea has at moments caused deep concern among Japanese officials.
Both those topics will be featured in Trump’s talks with Abe this weekend. But US officials said substance would take a back seat to the lashings of ceremonial Japanese culture meant to impress and flatter the US leader. Trump is the first state visitor since new Japanese Emperor Naruhito ascended to the Chrysanthemum Throne this month following his elderly father’s abdication.
The Emperor and his Harvard-educated wife, Empress Masako, will host Trump for an imperial banquet designed to illustrate strong US-Japan ties, which are critical in a country dependent on Washington for military protection. Trump will also present the winner of Tokyo’s spring sumo wrestling tournament a trophy after taking in a few rounds from ringside seats, an engagement that White House officials say he’s been anticipating eagerly.
The trophy Trump will present is about 54 inches tall and weighs 60-70 pounds, according to a senior White House official.
The trophy is called the “President’s Cup,” the official said.
While the effect will be one of royal feting of a leader who loves that sort of spectacle, it was never a question whether a US leader would be invited for the first official state visit of the Reiwa era, as Emperor Naruhito’s reign is known.
“It had to be the American president first,” said Michael Green, senior vice president, and Japan chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “It’s more about that than showing Donald Trump a lot of pomp and circumstance. The Japanese diplomatic agenda meant that whoever was president, they had to have the American president first.”
In extensive face time with Trump — including a bilateral meeting and likely a round of golf — Abe hopes to stave off further trade tensions and gain assurances that the US will remain tough on North Korea.
Japanese officials were alarmed earlier this month when North Korea resumed test-firing short-range missiles after a long period of relative silence. While Trump and other US officials took a middle-of-the-road approach to the tests, saying the diplomatic relationship with leader Kim Jong Un would continue, Japan took a harder stance, saying the move violated UN resolutions.
On Saturday, the US appeared to move closer to Japan’s stance. US national security adviser John Bolton told reporters the short-range missile tests did violate UN resolutions, according to Reuters, a first for a US official in describing the recent events.
Abe has regularly pressed Trump to maintain pressure on Pyongyang, particularly on the matter of Japanese citizens who were abducted by the regime decades ago. And while Tokyo does not oppose the President’s diplomatic efforts, there are lingering concerns that the pursuit of a nuclear agreement could lead to a withdrawal of US troops from the region.
‘A celebration of their new roles’
Trade, too, has provided heartburn for Abe in his dealings with Trump. The US withdrew from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership early in Trump’s tenure, which Japan had advocated for as a trade bloc that could provide a counterweight to China. Instead, Trump stated a preference to negotiating one-on-one trade agreements, including with Japan.
Last week, Trump decided to delay new auto tariffs as his administration negotiates bilateral trade agreements with Japan and Europe — but only for six months, a tight deadline for the two sides to reach an agreement that suits him.
Even as he lifted tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada and Mexico last week, Trump has maintained those tariffs on Japanese metals. Trump has insisted the trade deficit with Japan be lowered, and he carries a long-held view of the country as a fierce economic rival (he took out a full-page newspaper ad in 1987 declaring “Japan and other nations have been taking advantage of the United States”).
He said in his remarks Saturday he was looking to instill the US-Japan trading relationship with “fairness and reciprocity.”
Those disputes aren’t likely to be entirely resolved this week, officials said in previewing the trip, though Trump said on Saturday the two sides were “getting closer” to striking a deal.
“I don’t think that the purpose of this trip is to focus on trade. It’s really to be state guests of their Majesties. And that’s really the heart of the visit,” a senior administration official said. “It’s a celebration of their new roles and this new era that’s been kicked off the Reiwa era. And a chance to celebrate the alliance.”
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Right now, our country is facing two viral outbreaks. Both are incredibly dangerous and one fuels the spread of the other. The first: More than 800 cases of measles have been confirmed in the United States this year. The second? A plague of misinformation.
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Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight has posted a pair of videos to Twitter in which he affirms his long-held support for President Donald Trump and calls him "the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln."
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On Memorial Day -- or really Memorial Night -- CNN will air an hour-long special featuring comedian Colin Quinn. I reached out to Colin to talk about how he developed the special, how comedy fits into this current political moment and his views on President Donald Trump.
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The mother of a New Hampshire high school student who received free food from a lunchroom worker told a local newspaper that her son is not a needy child.
Speaking anonymously to the Union Leader earlier this week, the mother said, “I have three children, and they are all well-cared for and well-fed.
“She did not get fired for feeding a hungry child.”
Bonnie Kimball was fired from her job with Café Services in April after letting a student at Mascoma Valley Regional High School in Canaan have food without paying for it. She said he told her he didn’t have money.
Kimball’s former employer said she hadn’t been charging the student for anything for several months.
The mother shared Facebook messages from Kimball to her son that show the lunchroom worker asked the student to pay on the account so her manager wouldn’t see a problem after the manager watched her give the boy food.
One message from Kimball to the student reads, “So ya wendy got called in the office for us letting you go so wendy told them sometimes you bring cash ect so if you could put like 20 on your account would be great cause they VfB are going to watch us ring you in tomorrow.”
After the student says, “Okay,” Kimball says “we will probably get written up but we can make it look good. Lol.”
In the Facebook messages, Kimball also tells the student she has been fired before telling him that she is, “on world news right now flying to New York to meet some famous football players.”
When reached earlier this week, Kimball said: “My lawyer advised me not to speak to anyone.” She declined to give the name of her lawyer. CNN tried again Friday to get a comment from Kimball.
Kimball was accused of violating the procedures of Café Services as well as federal and school policies, according to a termination letter she provided to CNN. She had worked at Mascoma Valley Regional High School for more than four years, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader.
In a written statement, Brian Stone, president of Café Services school division said the student was in line with a full lunch, as well as oven fries and two packages of cookies. When the student got up to the cashier, Kimball grabbed a Powerade and added it to his tray, he said. She then let the student take the full lunch allowed by school policy and also four additional items, Stone added.
“Not only should she not have allowed the additional a la carte items, but she did not record or charge any of the items, including the main lunch, to the student account so they could be paid in the future,” Stone said.
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A Maui woman who went missing more than two weeks ago in Hawaii after a hike has been found alive.
Amanda Eller, 35, vanished after she got injured and lost during the hike on Maui, according to a post on a Facebook page dedicated to finding her. She was reported missing May 9 after hiking at Makawao Forest Reserve on the island. Police found her car in the parking lot.
Eller was lost somewhere above Twin Falls in between two waterfalls down a deep ravine in a creek bed. Rescuers spotted her Friday, and she was evacuated by air to a hospital, according to a post on her page.
Javier Cantellops, one of the rescuers, say that Eller was walking barefoot in a ravine, waving her arms at them.
Another rescuer, Chris Berquist, said they were elated when they saw her.
“We were freaking out,” he told KHON in Honolulu. “We were trying not to trip over ourselves trying to get to her too fast.”
Eller was looking for food when they saw her, Berquist said.
She lost about 15 pounds but otherwise is in decent health, Cantellops said.
On her website, Eller describes herself as a physical therapist who teaches yoga. When she’s not treating patients or teaching yoga, she is out exploring the outdoors, scuba diving and hiking, it says.
Her disappearance initiated a multiagency search effort.
Video posted to the Facebook page shows searchers and dogs at the site where her car was found.
“Amanda’s really well-loved in the yoga community, and there are people coming from all over the island coming in and hiking and trying to find her,” her friend Sarah Haynes told the affiliate.
Eller called her father Friday to tell him she’s OK, a post said.
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The discount supermarket chain Aldi recalled 5-pound bags of its Baker’s Corner All-Purpose Flour on Thursday because they may be contaminated with E. coli.
Seventeen people have been reported being sick in eight states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Three of those people have been hospitalized.
People interviewed by the CDC said they ate, licked or tasted raw, homemade dough or batter. Two people told the CDC they ate raw dough or batter made with flour or baking mixes from Aldi. The CDC states that eating or tasting raw dough or batter can make a person sick.
The illnesses began December 11, 2018, and the latest began April 18, the CDC said.
The recalled flour was sold at Aldi locations in 11 states, including Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and West Virginia.
The CDC, US Food and Drug Administration and regulatory officials in several states are investigating the outbreak that took place between December 11 and April 18, the CDC said. There have been no reported deaths or cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome (a type of kidney failure), the CDC said.
There are many strains of the bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli). Most strains are harmless and live in the intestines of healthy humans and animals.
Some kinds of E. coli cause illness by producing Shiga toxin. People usually get sick two to eight days after ingesting the germ, the CDC says.
The symptoms of E.coli infections can include stomach cramps, diarrhea, and vomiting. Some infections are mild, but others can be life-threatening.
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Dominique Moran knew something was wrong as soon as she awakened that Friday morning. She turned on her smartphone and saw the first of what would become a barrage of texts and voicemails.
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President Trump on Saturday voiced his support for the annual "Rolling Thunder" biker parade in Washington, D.C., following news that the group had encountered trouble obtaining permits for the event.Trump tweeted...
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With the Trump administration set to deploy U.S. troops to the Middle East amid heightened tensions with Tehran, a new report reveals that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has never talked with his Iranian counterpart....
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